After Congress dared BJP Government to disclose names of those who have stashed black money, Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu on Thursday said those making noise over the issue were actually shielding such account holders.
He also assured that the Centre was committed to crackdown on those having parked untaxed money abroad but said the process would take time.
“Those pressurising us to reveal names of people who have stashed black money in foreign banks soon, are actually protecting such account holders. We are in power for just six months. If it was easy, then why Congress had failed to bring it back in the last 50 years,” Naidu asked.
The Minister was addressing Madhya Pradesh BJP Karyakarta Sankalp Adhiveshan here ahead of the upcoming local bodies’ elections in the State. “The Government under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed to bring back the black money, but the process will take time because of mutual treaties signed by the earlier Governments,” he said.
“We will definitely expose the names and Congress will have to suffer because of it,” he warned. Questioning Congress’ silence on the issue for long, he asked as why Congress had not revealed the names earlier. Are their party leaders’ names figuring in itIJ
“If the names are revealed in a hurry, then it might create problems for the country in future because of number of treaties with other nations,” he said. The issue of making names of foreign bank account holders public, hogged limelight recently when Union Minister Arun Jaitley said that the Opposition party would be embarrassed if such a revelation was made.
Congress, on the other hand, had asked the Government to come out with complete information without indulging in selective leaks and said that it is not going to be blackmailed under any such threat.
The Supreme Court too had rapped the Centre and directed it to submit all the names of foreign bank account holders. Describing the Prime Minister as “3D” (Dynamic, Decisive and Development-oriented), Naidu said after he (Modi-led BJP) came to power in the country people have felt that both leadership and trust came back in the nation.
Praising Modi’s Swachhata Abhiyan, Naidu said the Government has earmarked Rs 60,000 crore for constructing toilets in urban areas and Rs 1.20 lakh crore in rural areas to realise the dream of Mahatma Gandhi to make India clean on his 150th birth anniversary in 2019.
Referring to Madhya Pradesh, he said his Ministry would sanction a Metro Rail project for Bhopal and Indore soon after getting Detailed Project Report (DPR). Naidu also praised Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan for ensuring 24.99 per cent agriculture growth rate and 11.9 per cent GDP in the State and also for implementing number of welfare schemes for the people.
Union Ministers Narendra Singh Tomar, Thawar Chand Gehlot and Prakash Jawdekar, former Chief Ministers Sunderlal Patwa, Kailash Joshi and members of Chouhan’s entire Cabinet among others were present on the occasion.
